5 business tips and insights that MUST be incorporated into your post-pandemic life
“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” - Winston Churchill
While not all of us are in a position to directly control what our politicians do, as business owners we ARE in control of what our business does. Here are 5 tips that we would be foolish not to embrace as we look forward:
Embrace technology. Unless your business was considered essential, the one main thing you could not do during Covid-19 was go to work. Where did we all turn? To technology. Recent events have forced us to move closer to technology more rapidly than some business are comfortable with. Those businesses who had already embraced cloud technology had an advantage. Get comfortable with the discomfort, continue to educate yourself and use technology that got you through the last few months to make you a much more prepared, streamlined business for 2020 and beyond.
Let go of traditional methods if there is no benefit. Do you REALLY need to see your bookkeeper every day in front of you to feel comfortable that he/she is doing their work? Is that the only benefit of having them on site? If so, you need to work on your ability to trust or find a bookkeeper that doesn’t require babysitting. If your bookkeeper is a solid employee and performed no less than equally as well remotely over the past few months, consider leaving it that way. This concept applies to other roles outside of bookkeepers too. As a business owner, you no longer have to pay rent on the space that person occupied, pay for the utilities that person used and in some cases pay for that super expensive parking spot. More cash in your pocket means you will be able to…
Free up cash where you can. It’s not wise to live paycheck to paycheck or sale to sale. But a lot of businesses do. Every business needs a cash reserve. Yes, the government provided financial support but it was slow coming in a lot of cases. So whittle down your expenses (see #2) and instead of using that to buy things, invest in your peace of mind and put it into an easily accessible savings vehicle.
Play by the rules. The government is cracking down on the misuse of independent contractors. Why? Because by refusing to make someone an employee who by definition IS an employee, businesses do not pay in to federal and state taxes that support all of us in good times and bad. How did this play out during the pandemic? Employees who were paid as independent contractors, but treated as employees came to their employer seeking financial help knowing the government was financially supporting small businesses. That employer could not get a PPP loan because it was meant for employers to support employees. Independent contractors had to apply on their own. We’ve heard of many cases of disappointed staff thinking they were going to be taken care of by their employer only to discover that they were on their own. Not sure if job loyalty was at a high in that moment.
Know your cash flow even outside of a pandemic. JPZ, Inc. offered free cash flow analysis for our monthly clients through Q2 2020. What we found was astounding. Most clients went in to our cash flow meeting fretting about their cash, thinking they wouldn’t have enough. 100% of them left that meeting understanding they had more than they thought and they would be okay. Cash flow isn’t something you should only worry about when in crisis. It should be part of your business life on no less than a monthly basis. You only know where you’re going if you know where you are and where you’ve been.